Game Of Thrones Episode Leaked By Accused To Please His Girlfriend, Finds Police

All's fair in love and war.

How far can one go for the sake of love? As far as jail, it would seem. According to investigations by Mumbai's cyber police, Alok Sharma, one of the four accused in the leak behind Game of Thrones' fourth episode, illegally accessed the show to please his girlfriend, reported Indian Express.

So far, investigators have not been able to find any monetary motive behind the leak — just curiosity about what happens next and the desire to impress a girlfriend.

An official who was part of the probe earlier told Indian Express that they suspected that Sharma had accessed the show because his girlfriend wanted to see it. "The girlfriend had then passed it onto others, one of whom uploaded it online."

This, however, is just one of the angles being investigated. Another senior officer said, "We are now contacting the internet service providers to find out who uploaded the episode online..."

According to a Hindustan Times report, the cyber crime police, after seizing their mobile phones and laptops, found that the four used video messenger app Skype to stay in touch.

In India, the popular HBO series airs on Hotstar, Star India's online streaming service. Hotstar had contracted Prime Focus Technologies to store and process the show's episodes. On 4 August, the ongoing season seven's fourth episode was leaked, three days ahead of its official release on 7 August. Prime Focus Technologies had taken responsibility for the leak and filed an FIR with the police on 10 August.

On August 14, the Mumbai cyber police identified four IT professionals behind the leak. Of the four accused, three — Bhaskar Joshi, Alok Sharma and Abhishek Ghadiyal are current employees of Prime Focus, while the fourth — Mohamad Suhail is a former employee.

The four were produced in front of a magistrate court on Monday, August 21, and have been remanded to police custody until 24 August, while investigators continue to probe the motivations behind the leak.